Vinicius Junior Hit With Four-Match Ban and Will Miss El Clasico

Real Madrid will be without Vinicius Junior for four LaLiga matches, including the Clasico away to Barcelona on October 25, after the Spanish football federation's disciplinary committee confirmed his suspension on Wednesday. The ban, announced just hours before Real Madrid's Champions League trip to Roma, is the harshest sanction of the Brazilian's career in Spain and lands in the middle of a title race his side are already losing.

Why the ban is four matches

Vinicius was shown a straight red card in the 73rd minute of Saturday's 1-0 win over Villarreal for tugging hard on the hair of Nathan Saliba as the pair sprinted down the field, moments before a goal that was also ruled out. The committee split the punishment: two matches for the hair-pull itself, and two more for his aggressive protests to referee Isidro Diaz de Mera as he left the pitch. In his match report, Diaz de Mera wrote that Vinicius protested his decision 'raising his voice, toward where I was standing in an aggressive manner, and being held back by teammates'.

What Real Madrid lose

The suspension rules Vinicius out of Sunday's home meeting with Sevilla, the following week's trip to league leaders Barcelona, and away fixtures at Racing Santander and Valencia. Barcelona sit six points clear of Real Madrid at the top of the table, so travelling to Montjuic without their most dangerous wide threat leaves Jose Mourinho's side facing the season's biggest fixture with a reshaped attack. Rodrygo, Brahim Diaz and Arda Guler are the obvious candidates to fill the vacancy on the left of the front three.

Mourinho furious at the timing

The timing drew an angry response from Mourinho, whose team came from 3-1 down to beat Roma 4-3 on Wednesday. 'Do you think it's normal that a player from a Spanish team, who has to play a match that is also important for Spanish football, that two hours before the match a player knows he's been given a four-match suspension?' he asked. 'They do things shamelessly now.' Real Madrid have the option of appealing, but with the Clasico ten days away any challenge must be lodged quickly to have a chance of trimming the ban before the trip to Catalonia.